It is ever and always a

It is ever and always a very great pleasure to me to meet with the Latter-day Saints in any of their assemblies, and I am particularly pleased to be present at our general conferences. It was a custom with me as a child to attend our general conferences regularly, and for thirty-six years, before this month expires, it has been my privilege to attend these conferences as one of the general authorities of the Church, and I have never yet attended a conference in this building but what I have been fed the bread of life by those who have spoken to the people. I rejoice with you in the very splendid meeting which we held here this morning, in the inspiration that came to each and all of the presidency of the Church as they addressed us. I desire to echo the sentiments expressed of gratitude and thanksgiving to our heavenly Father that our beloved President was able to be with us at our session this morning ; and I hope and pray, that the exertion necessary on his part to attend may not have been so great but what he can be with us again before our conference shall close. ¶

Regarding False Teaching

I desire on behalf of the council that I have the honor to preside over to say that we endorse the references, which were made here this morning by President Penrose, and so forcibly reaffirmed by the President of the Church, regarding this question of plural marriage and the fact that some men are today teaching it in secret, pretending that they are married or are entering into what they call plural marriage. Such men are indeed rebels, and traitors to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because they are branding it in the eyes of people who are not of us as being a dishonest organization. Personally, and I also speak for each member of the council of the Twelve Apostles, because I know their sentiments and I know that they are behind me, I endorse with all my heart these remarks. I want to say to the Latter-day Saints that in my opinion when any rebel or traitor to the work of God comes into their homes and tells them something false about the Church that there is a lack of patriotism on the part of all such individuals for not giving the traitor away. I would like you to get this into your minds. These people go around and lie, to put it in good, plain English, and they tell people, "Don't you say anything, don't you tell who told you that it was right." ¶

You don't have to keep the confidence of those who are crooked, you don't have to keep the confidence of somebody who is telling you that which is false, and such people ought to be exposed, and exposed upon the house tops ; they go around posing as superior to honest, straight-forward, upright people, branding the Church and the leaders of the Church with infamy by pretending we preach one thing in public and do another thing in private. I do not care to say any more on this subject. I seldom, if ever, speak on it that it doesn't arouse almost every particle of anger in my nature. Some of them say the Lord has directed them to take more wives. Well, I think he directed them just like he directed the negro (not that I am saying this to reflect upon negroes), but there was a negro who prayed : "Oh Lawd, oh Lawd, oh Lawd ; send dis heah niggah a turkey." He prayed for a whole week, and he didn't get any turkey, and at the end of a week he said : "Dis heah niggah don' know how to pray," so that night the negro prayed, "Oh Lawd, oh Lawd, oh Lawd, send dis heah niggah to a turkey," and he, said, "Dis heah niggah had turkey dinner the next night." ¶

A Remarkable Manifestation

I indorse the remarks made by President Penrose regarding the peace and the joy and the happiness that comes into the human heart in testifying of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ which has again been revealed to the earth. From October when I was called to be one of the council of the Twelve, until the following February, I had but little joy and happiness in my labors. There was a spirit following me that told me that I lacked the experience, that I lacked the inspiration, that I lacked the testimony to be worthy of the position of an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ. My dear mother had inspired me with such a love of the gospel and with such a reverence and admiration for the men who stood at the head of this Church, that when I was called to be one of them I was overpowered ; I felt my unworthiness and the adversary taking advantage of that feeling in my heart, day and night, the spirit pursued me, suggesting that I resign, and when I testified of the divinity of the work we are engaged in, the words would come back, "You haven't seen the Savior ; you have no right to bear such a testimony," and I was very unhappy. ¶

But in February, 1883, while riding along on the Navajo Indian Reservation with Elder Brigham Young, Jr., and fifteen or twenty other brethren, including the late president, Lot Smith, of one of the Arizona stakes,on our way to visit the Navajos and Moquis — as we were traveling that day, going through a part of the Navajo Reservation to get to' the Moqui Reservation— as we were traveling to the southeast, suddenly the road turned and veered almost to the northeast, but there was a path, a trail, leading on in the direction in which we had been traveling. There were perhaps eight or ten of us on horseback and the rest in wagons. Brother Smith and I were at the rear of our company. When we came to the trail I said, "Wait a minute. Lot ; where does this trail lead to ?" ¶

He said, "Oh, it leads back in the road three or four miles over here, but we have to make a detour of eight or nine miles to avoid a large gully that no wagons can cross." ¶

I asked : "Can a horseman get over that gully ?" He answered, "Yes." ¶

I said, "Any danger from Indians, by being out there alone?" He answered, "No." ¶

I said, "I want to be alone, so you go on with the company and I will meet you over there where the trail and road join." ¶

One reason that I asked if there was any danger was because a few days before our company had visited the spot where George A. Smith, Jr., had been killed by the Navajo Indians, and I had that event in my mind at the time I was speaking. I had perhaps gone one mile when in the kind providences of the Lord it was manifested to me perfectly so far as my intelligence is concerned — I did not see heaven, I did not see a council held there, but like Lehi of old, I seemed to see, and my very being was so saturated with the information that I received, as I stopped my animal and sat there and communed with heaven, that I am as absolutely convinced of the information that came to me upon that occasion as though the voice of God had spoken the words to me. ¶

It was manifested to me there and then as I sat there and wept for joy that it was not because of any particular intelligence that I possessed, that it was not because of any knowledge that I possessed more than a testimony of the gospel, that it was not because of my wisdom, that I had been called to be one of the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ in this last dispensation, but it was because the prophet of God, the man who was the chosen instrument in the hands of the living God of establishing again upon the earth the plan of life and salvation, Joseph Smith, desired that I be called, and that my father, Jedediah M. Grant, who gave his life for the gospel, while one of the presidency of the Church, a counselor to President Brigham Young, and who had been dead for nearly twenty-six years, desired that his son should be a member of the Council of the Twelve. It was manifested to me that the prophet and my father were able to bestow upon me the apostleship because of their faithfulness, inasmuch as I had lived a clean life, that now it remained for me to make a success or a failure of that calling. ¶

Great Joy in the Testimony Obtained

I can bear witness to you here today that I do not believe that any man on earth from that day, February, 1883, until now, thirty-five years ago, has had sweeter joy, more perfect and exquisite happiness than I have had in lifting up my voice and testifying of the gospel at home and abroad in every land and in every clime where it has fallen to my lot to go. A.nd I have gone to Japan, I have been in the Hawaiian Islands, I have been from Canada to Mexico, I have been in nearly every state in the Union of the United States ; I have been in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Denmark and I have had joy beyond my ability to express, in lifting up my voice, in bearing witness to those with whom I have come in contact that I know that God lives, that I know that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world, the Redeemer of mankind ; that I know that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of the true and living God, that I have ¶

the abiding testimony in my heart that Brigham Young was a chosen instrument of the living God, that John Taylor, that Wilford Woodruff, that Lorenzo Snow were, and that today Joseph F. Smith is the representative of the living God, and the mouthpiece of God here upon the earth. ¶

I do not have the language at my command to express the gratitude to God for this knowledge that I possess ; and time and time again my heart has been melted, my eyes have wept tears of gratitude for the knowledge that he lives and that this gospel called "Mormonism" is in very deed the plan of life and salvation, that it is the only true gospel upon the face of the earth, that it is in very deed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That God may help you and me and everyone to live it is my constant and earnest prayer. ¶

How the Power of the Priesthood Has Been Maintained by the Authorities of the Church

I will read from Section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants : ¶

We have learned, by sad experience, that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion. ¶

Hence many are called, but few are chosen. ¶

No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the Priesthood, only by persuasion, by long suffering, by gentleness, and meekness, and by love unfeigned; ¶

By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile, ¶

Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy; ¶

That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death ; ¶

Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly, then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God, and the doctrine of the Priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. ¶

The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy sceptre an unchanging sceptre of righteousness and truth, and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee for ever and ever. ¶

I want to bear witness to you here today that during the thirty-six years this month that I have been a member of the Council of the Twelve, that no power or influence has ever been exercised by the prophet of God who has presided over this Church during this time except exactly as taught in the Doctrine and Covenants ; and that no one of all the men I have been associated with as presidents of the Church has had more charity, more love, and has exercised the priesthood by the power of the living God in meekness and mercy and kindness, than the man who stands at the head of the Church today, Joseph F. Smith. ¶

That God may preserve his life for many, many years yet to come is the earnest prayer of my heart, and that of every Latter-day Saint in all the land. May God guide us to his praise continually and forever, is my prayer, and I ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶